Clive Spate

From Countdown

From Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, he first appeared on 30 January 1986, defeating Malcolm Edwards 66 – 28 and went on to win five more games, all with scores over 50 points, including 70 (the highest of the series) against Michael Purdie. He was defeated in his seventh game, though, by David Learner 54 – 46. Spate's six wins and impressive points haul were enough to earn him an invitation back for the final rounds as #1 seed, where he made short work of Tony Clarke and YT in the quarter- and semi-finals respectively. In the final against Anthony Butcher, it seemed to be slipping away from Spate as he had EARHOLES disallowed and slipping behind by eighteen points. By the first commercial break, however, he had recovered to a 2 point lead, and after successfully risking the now-invalid word DOMINATER for eighteen points, Spate eventually ran out the winner of the match and the series by 107 points to 53 — the first century score ever achieved on Countdown. Surprisingly, Spate was the first player to win a series of Countdown after being seeded #1.

Away from Countdown, Spate has had numerous success on other TV game shows, reaching the Grand Final of the first series of Fifteen to One in 1988, and winning £125,000 on Who Wants to be a Millionaire? as well as winning £50,000 on the first (and, to date, only) series of the Carol Vorderman-fronted show Grand Slam. In 1987, he became the first unbeaten player of BBC 2's word game-based series, Catchword.

Spate is also a big name on the Scrabble scene, being a recognised UK Grand Master as well as organising the popular twice-yearly Nottingham Nomads tournament.